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Kojima Productions
Kojima Productions Co., Ltd. , 小島 being the kanji for the last name of the studio's head, Hideo Kojima. In December 2015, Kojima re-incorporated the studio independently as , コジマ being a phonetic katakana rendering of his last name. }} is a Japanese video game development studio founded in 2005 by video game designer Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series. It was established as a subsidiary of Konami in Tokyo. The studio had just under 100 employees in 2005, but grew to over 200 for the development of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In 2015, the company was temporarily disbanded after Kojima left Konami. In December 2015, Kojima's employment contract with Konami was officially terminated, and he reformed the company as an independent studio in Shinagawa. History Under Konami , as introduced in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.]] '' in 2007]] Kojima Productions was formed on April 1, 2005, after Konami merged several of its subsidiaries including Kojima's team at Konami Computer Entertainment Japan (KCEJ). Kojima stated the merger relieved him of business management and administrative burdens he had as KCEJ's vice president, and that as head of Kojima Productions he could focus on creating games. He stated: }} Kojima Productions' first release was Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection in 2011, a compilation of Metal Gear Solid games. They also released Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D for the Nintendo 3DS as a port of the original game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In early 2014, they released Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes as a prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which was released in 2015. Closure On March 16, 2015, Konami announced that it had restructured its game development operations to "shift our production structure to a headquarters-controlled system, in order to establish a steadfast operating base capable of responding to the rapid market changes that surround our digital entertainment business." The same day, references to Kojima and Kojima Productions were stripped from promotional material and websites relating to the Metal Gear series, Kojima's Los Angeles studio was renamed Konami Los Angeles Studio, a new Metal Gear Solid Twitter account without a reference to Kojima in its username was established, and the Kojima Productions website began to redirect to the Metal Gear Solid website. That day, Kojima posted a photo on his personal Twitter account captioned "heading off", and a Konami filing stated that as of April 1, 2015, he would no longer be among Konami's executive officers. Speculation arose that Kojima was planning to leave Konami after the release of The Phantom Pain, which he had described as the conclusion to the Metal Gear series. On March 19, an anonymous employee reported to GameSpot that these changes were a result of conflicts between Kojima and Konami. The employee stated that Kojima and his staff were now being treated as contracted workers rather than employees, Konami had blocked access to their corporate e-mail and phone systems, and that Kojima and the studio's senior staff planned to leave Konami in December 2015 following the conclusion of their contracts and the release of The Phantom Pain. A Konami spokesperson denied that Kojima was leaving the company, and stated that he would still be involved with Konami and the Metal Gear franchise. On March 20, Konami stated on its website that Kojima would stay through at least the completion of The Phantom Pain, and that it was recruiting staff develop future Metal Gear games. Kojima confirmed in a statement that he was still "100% involved" in The Phantom Pain, and was "determined to make it the greatest game I've directed to date." Voice actress Donna Burke, who had been involved in the game, claimed in a posting on Twitter that Kojima had been fired; Konami denied these claims and Burke revoked her statement. On July 10, 2015, Akio Ōtsuka, who provided the Japanese-language voices of Solid Snake and Naked Snake, tweeted that Kojima Productions had closed. In December 2015, Kojima Productions was nominated for Developer of the Year at The Game Awards 2015, but lost to CD Projekt Red. The Game Awards 2015 |date=12 November 2015 |website=The Game Awards |publisher=Ola Balola |accessdate=13 November 2015 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151114024126/http://thegameawards.com/nominees/ |archivedate=14 November 2015 |df= }} Kojima was reportedly blocked from attending the event by Konami's lawyers, requiring Metal Gear voice actor Kiefer Sutherland to accept awards for The Phantom Pain on his behalf. Independent reformation On December 16, 2015, in a joint announcement with Sony Computer Entertainment, Kojima announced that his company would be re-established as an independent studio with other former Konami staff members, including artist Yoji Shinkawa and producer Kenichiro Imaizumi. The studio also announced that it would develop a new franchise for PlayStation 4. Kojima stated that he "will be taking on a new challenge by establishing my own independent studio, and I am thrilled to be able to embark on this journey with PlayStation, who I have continued to work with all these past years." At E3 2016, Kojima unveiled a trailer to Death Stranding during Sony's pre-E3 conference. Games Though Kojima had been designing games at Konami since 1987, the studio was not officially formed until 2005. However, Konami retroactively referred to Kojima's earlier productions as belonging to the studio. All Kojima Productions games released until 2015 were published by Konami. ;Pre-KCEJ/Kojima Productions ;Konami Computer Entertainment Japan (KCEJ) ; Kojima Productions (Konami subsidiary) ; Kojima Productions (independent studio) Notes References External links * Category:Companies Category:Amusement companies of Japan Category:Privately held companies of Japan Category:Re-established companies Category:Software companies based in Tokyo Category:Video game companies established in 2005 Category:Video game companies established in 2015 Category:Video game companies of Japan Category:Video game development companies Category:Japanese companies established in 2005 Category:Japanese companies established in 2015 Category:Konami Category:Companies established in 2005 Category:Companies re-established in 2015